The Dying of an Era
by pesky.lil.critter
Summary: Harry Potter. Albus Dumbledore. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Vincent Crabbe. Tom Riddle. Neville Longbottom. This is how they died.


**The Dying of an Era**

Harry Potter did not die an old man. He was sixty-seven years old and one of the DMLE's finest Aurors, felled by curse to the back as he was guarding a wounded colleague.

He left behind his wife, two sons, a daughter, a baker's dozen worth of grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, with another on the way.

His funeral was very well-attended despite his wife's decree, that no one Harry had not counted as a close friend or family member might be present, since his family numbered several dozen and he had many friends.

Ginny Potter did not remarry, going instead to live with her parents and joining them in doting on the youngest of the Weasley family.

Five months after Harry Potter's death his third great-grandchild was born, a boy with midnight hair and indeterminate eye-colour since he wouldn't open his eyes long enough for anyone to see. His mother insisted upon naming him Harry.

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><p>When death came, it was a relief, for the most part. He wished, of course, that he could continue to aid and advise as he had done for so many years.<p>

But he welcomed death – as an old friend, he thought, wanting to smile as he thought of the bedtime story – and he wished them the best of luck, those he left behind, especially Severus and Harry.

And later, he went to meet them when their time came and an old pain eased in his heart when they told him what he had missed of their lives.

He had not chosen ill.

* * *

><p>The stories of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley cannot be told separately for they were never far apart, and they found even death together.<p>

Professor Ron Weasley was the first Defence against the Dark Arts teacher to hold the post for more than one consecutive year. He took the post up when he was injured in the field and declared unfit for duty as a field Auror by the Healers, unwilling to resign himself to mere desk-duty for the rest of his career.

He was joined at Hogwarts a decade later by his wife who had resigned her job in the Ministry of Magic after her best friend's death. There was a vacancy in Muggle Studies, as Professor Gray had apparently found love and run off to America.

To this very day, no one knows exactly how or when the two died.

Headmaster Weasley and Professor Granger-Weasley, the Muggle Studies teacher were declared dead after they disappeared during a fire that ravaged Gryffindor tower. The bodies of two students and one teacher were discovered afterward but the Weasleys were never found.

* * *

><p>There is no quick death for those who fall prey to Fiendfyre. For all touched, death is sure, and surely slow and painful. There are those who have said that Fiendfyre is a man-made example of the fires of hell. Vincent Crabbe suffered for a long time while the fire of his own making raged in the Room of Requirement.<p>

* * *

><p>Until the very last minute he had been sure he would come out of this fight the winner. But the boy spoke of things he had no right to know. He spoke confidently and with absolute surety. Tom Riddle's last spell was chosen in unthinking desperation, and some small part of him did regret. He did not feel his own spell hit him.<p>

* * *

><p>He despaired, at times, of his students. They forgot to bring their dragonhide gloves even after they'd been told every day for a week. They would push and shove and whisper, missing important parts of his teaching and he often prayed this would not someday cost a life.<p>

There were days, strange as it may seem, that Neville Longbottom felt deep sympathy for Professor Snape.

Such as the day a careless student pulled out the fully grown Mandrake he was repotting without putting on his earmuffs. (The ones he'd been given were garishly pink and fluffy, and he was one of the particularly inattentive students, which fully explains, though does not excuse, what happened next.)

There being no other earmuffs close at hand, Neville pulled off his own and managed to get them on the idiot's head just in time to hear the Mandrake cry.

_Honestly,_ thought Neville,_ I've no idea how Snape survived having me for a student._

And then he thought no more.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Sooo...

Can anyone figure out why I chose exactly these characters?


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